


Gabe Learns Ballet

by Efereeno



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 08:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19081762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Efereeno/pseuds/Efereeno
Summary: Gabe reflects back on his life and what's happened to him since his life went to shit and he joined Talon





	Gabe Learns Ballet

Gabriel had spent the last decade cultivating a very particular motif. He had embraced the darker side of himself that Moira’s experiments and the super soldier program had instilled in him. He was still angry about everything that had happened in Switzerland and he channeled that into his “work.” That being killing people for the world’s most prolific terrorist organization. Oh how the mighty had fallen. He had been at the top of his game, a leader of Overwatch, but a few mistakes here, some people killed there, and it all ended with a literal bang when he and Jack fought. Gabe had survived, miraculously, and limped away from the site without anybody noticing him. He went to Moira first. They had worked together in Blackwatch and he didn’t think Angela would take his side anymore. Not with Jack being gone. Not even Jesse would forgive him anymore. Moira had taken him in and in exchange for saving his life, he allowed her to use her newest tech on him. An energy stealing kit that fused with the healing factor the super soldier program had imbued him with, making him constantly break down and reform. He was a ghost, a wraith, trapped between living and dead. When the experiments were over and he was more stable, Moira offered him work with her new employer.

Now that Overwatch was dead, Moira had defected to Talon. They let her work in peace even though most of it was morally dubious. Anything to help the world become stronger. That was the motto of Akande, Gabe’s former enemy. But Gabe was so far past his own morals at this point. He wanted to see the world burn. Everything he had worked for was ruined. The people he cared about, dead or dead to him. So he adopted a new personality. The Reaper. He struck quietly, well as quietly as you could with twin shotguns, but at least efficiently. He killed without remorse and enjoyed it. This was progress. Progress that Jack had been afraid of. Sometimes you had to break some skulls to get things done and Gabe was fine with that. He settled into his role as Talon’s lead of operations and leader of their strike team. The position he had deserved in Overwatch. But something in the back of his head always tried to remind him of his original goals. The people he had worked with, the people he had saved. Was he really so willing to turn his back on 20 years of work just because of one grudge?

There was one anomaly in the whole thing though. Amelie Lacroix. She was Gerard’s wife, widow now. Odd how that fit. He learned soon after arriving to Talon that she had not died along Gerard as they thought. No she had been the one to kill him after they had rescued her. She was nothing like he remembered. For one thing, she was blue now. But she had also had her mind wiped and reprogrammed to be an assassin. When he first found out about all of this, he had killed the scientist who had done it, Akande be damned. He loved this woman as a sister, her husband as a brother, and he had grieved for them both. And so now he watched over her, making sure she stayed safe and that the last piece of his friends that he had stayed safe. 

It was while keeping an eye on her between and before missions that he noticed how she moved. She still did her stretches from her ballet routines and he sometimes saw her go through some of her basic movements before stopping in disgust. He realized then that Talon had taken away the one thing she loved more than Gerard. Her love of dancing was conditioned out of her, though Gabe saw her struggle past it in an attempt to relive those moments. Gabe knew that somewhere deep inside, the Amelie he knew still existed. And he decided that he would stay in Talon and save her. Maybe if he did that, his former colleagues would see his as they had before. He could return to his former life and learn to cope with his malformations. But to save her, he had to pull out the old Amelie. And the only way he could do that was through dance.

One day after a long mission in Nepal, he approached Amelie in her room. He told her his body was tightening up because of the constant break down and build up. So he asked her for a basic stretching routine. That only she had the correct know how and he didn’t want anybody else in the organization to know he had a fault. Then next week he asked for a more rigorous techniques. Later he faked not understanding her descriptions and so asked for a demonstration. Hesitantly, Amelie began and walked him through it, and for a moment he could see a spark in her eye. But it quickly turned to anger and she straightened out and kicked him out. He gave her some time before coming back. But when he did, he came back asking for basic ballet movements. All Amelie gave him was a sheet and a small video. Gabe was about to give up. When he opened the video, he was shocked to find it was Amelie herself. She slowly and hesitantly walked her way through the basics. Gabe felt himself tear up watching her fight against the programming. And he found himself following along with her. Not only to help convince her to help him more, but he felt he could at least do the work for her. 

Eventually, Amelie called him to her room before he could go to her. AS he stepped into the room, Amelie told him to go through the forms. On instinct, he did as he was told. He remembered that tone. It was the one she had used when he and Gerard came home drunk. The one that meant she wouldn’t hear any nonsense. When he was done, she mocked him, likening him to a clumsy child. While he growled at her that he was her superior, he couldn’t help but smile under his mask. After that, they began to meet in a private gym as Amelie walked him through more and more rigorous techniques. She may not have been able to do them herself, but she could force him through it. And when he was successful with the harder bits, he found her coming out of her shell. She spoke more and more about her times as a prima ballerina in France. She even called him Gabe once. Everything was going fantastic. And he found that he loved to work with her and to dance.

It was so freeing.Since before the super soldier program, Gabe’s whole life had been regimented. There was no room for expression or feelings. From school to the military to the super soldier program to Overwatch, he had never had a chance to be so free. In this gym, he could move and and express himself in a way that wasn’t violence. But in a way, they were incredibly similar. The fluid, trained movements that were muscle memory to him translated over to dance and ballet albeit with much less force behind them. And it was soon after he had mastered the classic lift that Amelie confided in him. She remembered him. She was starting to remember everything. She collapsed in his arms and they both cried over Gerard and Jack after he filled her in. She cried for the loss of his family and he for hers. They planned to get out. To leave, find any of their colleagues and warn them of what had been going on. Gabe had an idea of where Amari was and they would go to her first. They could both apologize but Gabe knew it wouldn’t be easy. After all, Amelie had taken Ana’s eye, brainwashed or not, she wouldn’t be overly pleased.

Everything was going so well. Amelie was opening up, he was feeling better than before the Swiss incident. But then Moira caught wind. She exposed them and it was all Gabe could do to get out of the complex alive. Even with his wraith from he was bobbing and weaving, sliding from cover to cover. They wanted him dead. He had cost them an asset, betrayed them, and knew top secret intel. Eventually he was pinned down just before the last gate. The building was on lockdown, he was surrounded, and he was exhausted. He couldn’t go wraith anymore, his body had nothing left to build him back up if he did. All of a sudden the door unlocked and he heard a shot ring out and a body hit the floor. He heard Amelie scream for him to run and Olivia materialized between him for a moment, shushing his yell and telling him to run and that she’d catch up to them eventually. She had secured a boat and they would go to Egypt as soon as possible. Of course she knew. He could never keep a secret from her. He bolted out the door and caught Amelie as she flew out, flying out on her grappling hook. They ran as Olivia shut down the complex. Taking the boat out from the harbour, they fled in the night.

Weeks alter, after traveling as discreetly as possible without a traceable path, they made it to Egypt. In that time, Amelie had broken free of the brainwashing and through the heat and all of her practice with resisting the former control her heart rate returned to normal bringing back her normal color. Olivia helped them secure food and board with her hacking skills. When they made it to Egypt they tracked down Ana. They found her fighting some bodyguards protecting a slumlord. Gabe waded into the fray, taking them down with practiced moves. Nonlethal ones even. Lifting and throwing and grappling, no guns. He was tired of death. Ana nearly shot his head off when the fight was over, but after seeing Amelie back to normal, they spent the night together, drinking and telling old stories and swapping important intel. She showed him photos of Pharah and Reinhardt. God how he missed them. She even said she could reach Jesse if he wanted. As much as his heart hurt at the thought of talking to his protege, no his son, he knew it would have to wait. They needed to get to somewhere secure. Ana also told him about the Recall. The monkey seemed to be trying to convince everybody to come back. With what he and the others had been up to in the last few years, he wasn’t to surprised. But he was surprised that most of their coworkers were already coming back, Everyone was migrating to Gibraltar. That was the direction Ana was headed when they found her. But that was all the news she ha.That was when she told him that Jack was alive, well, and near. She couldn’t promise that things would be better immediately, but she could set up a meeting. As Gabe settled down that night he thought about the path his life had taken. Everything was going back to normal. All because he had learned to dance.


End file.
